ABSTRACT
In 1933, Nelson Rockefeller of the famous Rockefeller oil family and Mexican artist Diego Rivera engaged in a standoff over freedom of artistic expression and the rights of artistic patronage. At the time, Rockefeller maintained offices in the new Rockefeller Center in New York City and was heavily involved in the city's construction boom. His sister, Abby, an avid art collector, recommended Rivera to paint a mural for Rockefeller Center. The mural was to be an expression of man's choice between continued capitalist development and a more humane future under socialism. It was to be entitled "Man at the Crossroads." Rockefeller was aware of Rivera's leftist politics, but when V. I. Lenin showed up in the painting, Rockefeller asked Rivera to reconsider. Given the economic and political situation in the United States at the time, Rockefeller feared that inclusion of the Soviet leader would prove inflammatory to potential tenants.
